Hey guys. Welcome to this episode, Marc back here from Jazz Guitar Lessons with you for a quick snapshot podcast about beliefs. Yeah, I know it sounds or needs the whole personal development area. We're all careful what you believe in. Or the famous Henry Ford quote, which is if you believe you can or if you believe you can't, you're both right.
And I want to address it in a slightly different perspective, a different entry point into this whole thing as it relates to learning to play music better, to learn to improvise or to play jazz guitar, whatever is your goal or whatever you're working on right now. The reason you're listening to this episode is probably because you're passionate about it and you want to make a change or, you know, learn new things and or have more fun while performing.
Or perhaps you have the goal of going out and performing live, or you're doing this just for personal satisfaction. If someone asks you to play a tune, then you can perform the tune. So regardless, I just invite you very politely—not telling you what to do, but kind of putting unsolicited advice out there—telling you that sometimes there are students that I come across who have a pretty definitive belief or a pretty definite, stubborn way of perceiving what is lacking or what the next steps are supposed to be in their musical development.
In my case, it's guitar, of course. It says it in the website name; it's JazzGuitarLessons.net. And of course, people may be very attached to their ways of doing things or attached to what it means to be lacking certain elements. Let me give you an example. A student of mine learns a new standard, let's say How High the Moon. They say, “Okay, there's a song, there's a melody, and if I want to improvise better…” Notice the if statement. If then, “I have to do all of these arpeggios—seven arpeggios in all the keys, on at least two octaves, and in all the different positions.”
And this turns into a “should” statement. If then. And just to be very, very polite and concise—and be PC with my students—I’ll go, “Okay, and so far, have you done this on previous standards successfully? And if so…” The answer may be yes. “And if so, did it make you improvise better in the end?” Right. So there’s always a way—I’ll be, again, polite—to just try to crack that shell a little bit. Just go, “Yeah, okay. You believe that, and I think it’s good. I mean, no one can argue that it would be ‘wrong’—quote-unquote wrong—to practice arpeggios this way on How High the Moon. However, what are you trying to accomplish? And are you very attached to this manner of proceeding?”
That’s what I say when I meet people and they really want to take control of the how. And then I question them and go, “How does this how perform for you?” Because if this works, then you’re clearly on your way to developing as a player. If not, then here’s my proposition. My method. It may work for you, it may not. It works for me; it works for these students. And this is the step-by-step approach of how we do things.
So today, in this micro podcast—you say capsule in French—this is just a reminder to be mindful when you catch yourself believing something or having mandatory musts or shoulds. That would have been a great example, going like, “When I do this, I have to…” You know, if I encounter a new standard, then the only way is... Often, it’s very dogmatic, right? There’s one way of looking at it, of proceeding. There’s only one way, because so-and-so instructor said it, or this book said it, or…
People will even get into arguments on online guitar forums I’ve seen. Like, “We only have to think of only arpeggios when we solo, because arpeggios are the good notes of the chords.” That’s a very valid argument. Cool. And then there’s the other side of the fence that says, “No, no, no. We must only think of scales because…” Here’s the rest of the argument: “If I listen to Charlie Parker solos or Coltrane solos or Michael Brecker solos—whoever—the solos are made of scales.”
Another solid argument. And I’ll sit here, right in between, in my extreme centrist views. I’m like, “You guys on this side are telling me you’ve got to practice only arpeggios, and you guys on the other side are telling me you’ve got to practice only scales, right?” And I have a huge question mark on my face. I go, “Why couldn’t I just do both of these things? Why does it have to be an or? It’s not or; it’s and. I both personally think and teach in arpeggios and in scales.”
So there is no such thing as a finalized, crystallized, cemented, one-way ultimate holy grail of whatever. It’s never going to be the case. Plus, once it’s getting settled, we’re going to get true artists—like, artists plural—pushing these boundaries further into new territory. And then art or music as a field in teaching will have to evolve as well. It’s going to have to catch up. So there are never any absolutes. That would be the takeaway for today.
So if you catch yourself looking at the how—and again, I speak from experience—I watched my statistics recently, and I’ve had a thousand conversations with you guys, coaching conversations. Over a thousand people. I sat in front, on Skype or Zoom, or whatever, and went, “Yep, how can I help you?” And some people wind up enrolling, having a really awesome time in my coaching program. Some people say, “I never want to speak to you again. It’s the worst thing that happened since whatever, World War Two.” And so we find—I’m completely open to that.
But I had everyone on the extreme of using my services, my coaching, and the other people on the other side that did not, and everyone in between. And that’s a very common theme: the rigidity of the people I talk to. To have a problem that they deem is not actually a real problem, which would be, “The reason I’m not good at improvising on How High the Moon is because I haven’t done this work on the arpeggios.” You see, that was the example from earlier.
But the more of these convincing paradigms there are, the easier it is to have excuses and go, “Oh, I’m not good at that yet, of course, because I haven’t done that other thing.” And then it becomes a gateway into going, “Oh, well, here’s the explanation why I didn’t succeed.” And my take as a guitar coach and teacher would be: What if that thing you think you should have done or should not have done does not explain your lack of success? What if there’s another way to have success that’s quicker, faster, and way more fun?
And you know, what if you encounter a guy—it could be Marc, it could be anyone else. It could be the guy next door—the guy or gal next door that teaches guitar—go boom. “Wow, quite a revelation that I can actually do what I intended to do without going through all of these shoulds.” So keep an eye out for that. That’s just a quick life reminder.
Thanks for listening. If you’re listening to this on podcast platforms, please leave us a five-star review. Or, if you can, add comments or questions. I read all of those, and what we talk about in the podcast—these topics are determined by you guys’ comments and engagements. So if you have anything else you’d like me to tackle, let me know. Happy practicing, and I’ll talk to you soon. Take care.
